Objects and Meaning New Perspectives on Art and Craft

by Fariello, Anna M.; Owen, Paula; Fariello, M Anna; Malarcher, Patricia; Barnard, Rob; Perreault, John; Sanders, James; Tucker, Marcia; Drucker, Johanna; Hardy, Michele; Ramljak, Suzanne; Ullrich, Polly; Metcalf, Bruce

• ISBN13: 9780810857018
• ISBN10: 0810857014
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-10-20
• Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Summary

Objects and Meaning expands upon a national conversation questioning how various academic disciplines and cultural institutions approach and assign meaning to artist-made objects in postmodern North America. Although most of the discourse since the mid 20th century revolved around the split between art and craft, the contributors to this collection of essays take a broader view, examining the historical, cultural, and theoretical perspectives that defined the parameters of that conversation. Their focus is on issues concerning works that appeared to cross over from mainstream art to an amorphous and pluralistic aesthetic milieu that has yet to be defined.

Table of Contents

Preface	vi
Part 1: Historical Contexts
1 Regarding the History of Objects	2	(22)
M. Anna Fariello
2 Labels, Lingo, and Legacy: Crafts at a Crossroads	24	(12)
Paula Owen
3 Critical Approaches: Fragments from an Evolution	36	(20)
Patricia Malarcher
4 Paradise Lost? American Crafts' Pursuit of the Avant-Garde	56	(12)
Rob Barnard
Part 2: Cultural Systems
5 Crafts Is Art: Tampering with Power	68	(20)
John Perreault
6 Moving Beyond the Binary	88	(18)
James H. Sanders
7 A Labor of Love	106	(30)
Marcia Tucker
8 Affectivity and Entropy: Production Aesthetics in Contemporary Sculpture	136	(12)
Johanna Drucker
Part 3: Theoretical Frames
9 "Reading" the Language of Objects	148	(28)
M. Anna Fariello
10 Feminism, Crafts, and Knowledge	176	(10)
Michele Hardy
11 Intimate Matters: Objects and Subjectivity	186	(12)
Suzanne Ramljak
12 Workmanship: The Hand and Body As Perceptual Tools	198	(18)
Polly Ullrich
13 Evolutionary Biology and Its Implications for Craft	216	(15)
Bruce Metcalf
About the Contributors	231